World's Biggest Sheetfed Press For Signage Printer

National Posters, the flagship company of National Print Group, in Chattanooga, Tennesee (USA), is preparing for the installation and start-up of what is claimed to be the world's largest press.

National Posters, the flagship company of National Print Group, in Chattanooga, Tennesee (USA), is preparing for the installation and start-up of what is claimed to be the world's largest press.

The KBA Rapida 205 81" seven-colour plus coater sheetfed press, is said to be the world's largest litho press, weighing in at almost 600,000 lbs.

It is due to be introduced at National Posters with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in mid-July with a tentative start-up date of August.

George Diamantis, chairman of National Print Group, parent of National Posters, said: "We are a successful printer because we are constantly responding to the needs of our customers.

This press will enable our company to present our customers with more print opportunities and options than ever before." The benefits the new press are said to realise include the ability to print on a variety of substrates, a faster cycle time, more control over producing jobs in-house, and enhanced quality and cost efficiencies.

Diamantis added: "There will be no single competitor that will be able to do what we can with this press or have the ability to offer the variety of printing we offer, from digital to screen to litho.

This press enhances and completes our current large format capabilities." The signage market represents 60 per cent of National Posters' current business.

By installing the Rapida 205 with hybrid UV capabilities, the firm will be able to print signage on a wider variety and more rigid substrates, said the company.

National Posters' roster of existing presses is capable of printing up to six colours.

The new KBA Rapida 205 with seven colours will allow the firm to take advantage of the growth in multi-colour printing and the trend toward using opaque whites, metallic and custom logo colours, said KBA North America.

Casey Scott the vice president of marketing at National Poseters, said: "This press will give us the ability to more quickly respond to the needs of our customers.

In addition, our customers will now have the ability to print short-run and long-run jobs with variability.

We can use our current digital technology to print the variable message or print prototypes of holiday store advertising.

Once they are approved, we can print the entire job on the Rapida 205." National Posters has been busily readying its Chattanooga, plant.

A new glass-enclosed pressroom has been built to house the large press with enough concrete to hold the 600,000lb press.

Surrounding the pressroom is a new customer lounge and viewing area to watch jobs being printed on press.

To accommodate the larger sheet size, National Posters has upgraded its pre-press department adding two new larger-format Kodak-Creo platesetters.

Joel Stuart, general manager of National Posters, commented: "The installation of this press will be a significant step forward for our company.

We've been hoping for the last 10 years that a press this size would be available and KBA has done it.

The new KBA Rapida 205 will help to increase our capacity and give us faster turn-around using the UV capability to dry jobs and send them immediately to the finishing department" He added: "Key components on the press are its automatic plate loading and its integrated production workflow via the KBA Logotronics Professional management system.

All of these systems will significantly reduce make-ready and increase our productivity." Founded in 1957 as National Posters, National Print Group began with 12 employees and has grown to over 400 employees in five plants.

National Print Group is now ranked in the top 125 printers in the USA Today, the firm is a one-stop resource for outdoor advertising and POP advertising production.

National Print Group caters to a nationwide clientele of advertising agencies and corporate clients.

Its Chattanooga plant employs 150 people.

Back to top